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Michael Kamen
| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = London, England | occupation = Composer, orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, session musician | instrument = Oboe, piano | genre = Film score, rock, pop | years_active = 1967–2003 | associated_acts = New York Rock & Roll Ensemble }} Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician. Biography Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born in New York City, United States, the second of four sons. His father, Saul Kamen, was a dentist, and his mother, Helen, was a teacher. He was of Jewish heritage. While attending The High School of Music & Art in New York City, Michael Kamen became friends with Martin Fulterman (later known as Mark Snow, who composed the theme music for The X-Files among other projects). While studying the oboe, he formed a rock-classical fusion band called New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, together with classmates Fulterman and Dorian Rudnytsky along with Clifton Nivison and Brian Corrigan of Toms River, New Jersey. The group released five albums from 1968 to 1972 (Self-Titled, Reflections, Faithful Friends, Roll Over & Freedomburger). The group performed in white tie (not tuxedos), as typically worn by classical musicians. In the middle of the concert, Fulterman and Kamen would play an oboe duet. The group backed up friend and classmate Janis Ian in a concert at Alice Tully Hall in late 1967. After graduating from high school, Kamen attended The Juilliard School, in Manhattan, New York City. Kamen's early work concentrated on ballets, before extending to Hollywood with the score for The Next Man in 1976, and then to pop and rock arranging, collaborating with Pink Floyd on their album, The Wall. Career in popular music Kamen became a highly sought-after arranger in the realms of pop and rock music. His contemporaries in this field included Academy Award winner Anne Dudley, Richard Niles, and Nick Ingman. His successes include his work with Pink Floyd, David Gilmour and Roger Waters (he is one of the few people invited to work with both former Pink Floyd members, even after their acrimonious split), as well as Queen (orchestration on "Who Wants to Live Forever"), Eric Clapton (on Edge of Darkness), Roger Daltrey, Aerosmith (live orchestral version of "Dream On" for MTV), Tom Petty, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Eurythmics, Queensrÿche, Rush, Metallica (on the song "Nothing Else Matters" and their live album, S&M), Def Leppard, Herbie Hancock, Tim Curry, The Cranberries, Bryan Adams, Jim Croce, Coldplay, Sting, Guns N' Roses (on their performance of "November Rain" on the MTV Video Music Awards) and Kate Bush. For Bush, Kamen delivered an orchestral backing for "Moments of Pleasure" from The Red Shoes album, substantially building upon a simple piano theme Bush had composed. In this instance and many others, he conducted the orchestra personally for the recording. In 1984, two years after moving to London, Kamen had similarly heightened the effect of a pop recording for the Eurythmics "Here Comes the Rain Again", that score relying as much on his compositional skills as his arranging talents. In 1990, Kamen joined many other guests for Roger Waters' performance of The Wall in Berlin, and led the National Philharmonic Orchestra during the 24 Nights sessions with Eric Clapton the following year. Lenny Kravitz recorded a cover of "Fields of Joy" on his 1991 CD Mama Said that Kamen had co-written with Hal Fredricks. In 2002, Kamen took part in the Concert for George as strings conductor. Kamen had a successful partnership with Bryan Adams and R.J. Lange composing scores and songs. The ballad "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" for the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the number one song that year worldwide. Other songs were "All for Love" for the movie The Three Musketeers in 1993, and "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" the song from the film Don Juan DeMarco, in 1994. Film and television career Kamen wrote eleven ballets, a saxophone concerto and an electric guitar concerto (with Japanese guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei as a soloist, though originally performed by Eric Clapton). Additionally, he wrote a commissioned work, "Quintet," for the Canadian Brass. He also provided scores for the films The Dead Zone, For Queen and Country, Polyester, Brazil, Someone To Watch Over Me, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Three Musketeers, Highlander, X-Men, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Licence to Kill, the Lethal Weapon series, the first three films of the ''Die Hard'' series, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Iron Giant, Splitting Heirs, Frequency, Memento and many others. He also scored both the From the Earth to the Moon and Band of Brothers series on HBO. The trailer for the 2007 DreamWorks release Bee Movie, the 2008 Fox release Nim's Island, the 2008 Disney/Pixar release WALL-E, and the 2014 Fox/DreamWorks release Mr. Peabody & Sherman featured Kamen's "Central Services / The Office" from his score to Brazil (1985). In television, Kamen composed music for two series of The Manageress produced by Glenn Wilhide at Zed Productions for Channel 4, but perhaps his best known work was on the 1985 BBC Television serial Edge of Darkness, on which he collaborated with Eric Clapton to write the score. The pair were awarded with a British Academy Television Award for Best Original Television Music for their work and performed the main movie theme with the National Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall of London in 1990 and 1991. In 1994, Kamen conducted an orchestration of The Who's music for Roger Daltrey's 50th birthday concert series entitled A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who which was subsequently released on CD and DVD. He also worked with heavy metal band Metallica, on a two-day concert that was held in Berkeley, California, with the San Francisco Symphony. A recording of the concert, titled S&M, debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and went multi-platinum in 2001. The same year Kamen and Metallica won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for one of S&M compositions, "The Call of Ktulu".Boucher, Geoff (January 4, 2001) Grammys Cast a Wider Net Than Usual. LA Times Kamen was nominated for two Academy Awards and won three Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, two Ivor Novello Awards, an Annie Award and an Emmy. Later years His involvement with Mr. Holland's Opus, a film about a frustrated composer who finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher, led Kamen to create The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation in 1996. The foundation supports music education through the donation of new and refurbished musical instruments to underserved school and community music programs and individual students in the United States. In 2005 the foundation created an emergency fund for schools and students affected by Hurricane Katrina. In 1998, Kamen composed and conducted the soundtrack for What Dreams May Come. Produced by James Seymour Brett, the score was initially set to be composed by Ennio Morricone. The Italian composer had initially completed and recorded a full score for the film but, after editorial changes were made, his score was rejected and Kamen was hired in his place. Short on time, Kamen took the song "Beside You" from his New York Rock Ensemble's album Roll Over and adapted it as the movie's main musical theme.WHAT DREAMS MAY COME - "They rejected it because it was too emotional?", Radio Soundtrack f-m Between April 21 and 22, 1999, Kamen worked with the heavy metal band Metallica, along with The San Francisco Symphony, to record a two-day concert that was held at The Berkeley Community Theatre in Berkeley, California. The concert performance, titled S&M by Metallica, which is an acronym for "Symphony and Metallica", referencing the collaboration of the two artists, was released on November 23, 1999 on CD, DVD, and VHS formats, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200, subsequently reaching multi-platinum status by 2001. Later that year, Kamen and Metallica won a Grammy Award For Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the S&M track titled "The Call Of Ktulu". In 2001 and 2002, Kamen performed with David Gilmour at Gilmour's semi-unplugged shows at the Royal Festival Hall, playing piano and cor anglais. The 2001 concert and highlights from 2002 were released on DVD as David Gilmour in Concert. In 2002, Kamen, along with Julian Lloyd Webber, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and Sir James Galway launched the Music Education Consortium in the UK. The consortium's efforts led to the injection of £332 million for music education in the UK. He was also commissioned to write a piece for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. His last recorded work appeared on Bryan Adams's album Room Service where he played the oboe and wrote the orchestration to "I Was Only Dreamin'". Kamen had also completed the charts for accompaniment to two songs on Kate Bush's album Aerial, which was released in April 2005. Health and death Kamen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1997. He died in London, England, from a heart attack on November 18, 2003, at the age of 55. Legacy In 2004, when Annie Lennox accepted the Academy Award for Best Original Song (for "Into the West" from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), she dedicated her achievement to the memory of Kamen. The 2004 films First Daughter and Boo, Zino & the Snurks (also known as Back to Gaya), which he was working on at the time of his death, were dedicated to his memory. David Gilmour's 2006 album On an Island was dedicated to the memory of Kamen and longtime Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke. Film scores Concert works * Concerto for Saxophone (1990) * 24 Nights (1991) * Live in Hyde Park (1997) * Guitar Concerto (with Tomoyasu Hotei) (1998) * S&M (1999) With Metallica * The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms (2001) * Quintet (Canadian Brass) (2002) References External links * * * * Film Composer Tributes – Michael Kamen * Michael Kamen at Soundtrackguide.net * Michael Kamen interview (in french) at UnderScores : Musique & Cinéma Category:Michael Kamen Category:1948 births Category:2003 deaths Category:20th-century American composers Category:20th-century American conductors (music) Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American film score composers Category:American male conductors (music) Category:American male songwriters Category:American music arrangers Category:American oboists Category:American people of English-Jewish descent Category:American session musicians Category:Annie Award winners Category:Atco Records artists Category:Deaths in Greater London Category:Decca Records artists Category:Georges Delerue Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Jewish American composers Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Male film score composers Category:Male oboists Category:Musicians from New York City Category:People with multiple sclerosis Category:The High School of Music & Art alumni Category:Christopher Lennertz Category:Mark Mancina Category:James Newton Howard Category:Blake Neely Category:Jack Hayes (composer) Category:Marco Beltrami Category:William Ross Category:Don Davis (composer) Category:Henry Jackman Category:Matthew Margeson Category:Marc Shaiman Category:Mark Isham Category:Stanley Myers Category:Hans Zimmer Category:James Horner Category:Michael McCuistion Category:Lolita Ritmanis Category:Kristopher Carter Category:Kenneth Burgomaster Category:Eric Clapton Category:Marvin Hamlisch Category:Ennio Morricone Category:Shirley Walker Category:Michael Giacchino Category:Michael John Mollo Category:Walter Afanasieff Category:Georges Delerue Category:David Foster Category:Linda Thompson (actress) Category:Steven Scott Smalley Category:Jennifer Hammond Category:Fiachra Trench Category:Edward Shearmur Category:Bob Singleton Category:Joseph Phillips Category:J. 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